


Going Back

by nealinor



Series: ABO Bingo Round 3 [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Fluff, M/M, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-08
Updated: 2018-07-08
Packaged: 2019-06-07 08:19:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15214964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nealinor/pseuds/nealinor
Summary: Dean loves high school reunions. So he doesn't even think twice about agreeing to go to Cas's high school reunion, only to find out that the alpha doesn't want to go.





	Going Back

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first entry for my ABO card this time. I'm hoping I don't flop like I did last round. I'm still struggling with writers block and my dissertation, so hopefully this is okay. My next entry should have smut in it, for those of you that are into that sort of thing. I'm warming up slowly, I think. Thanks for reading.

The envelope that came in the mail was pretty nondescript and was addressed to Castiel Novak and Mate. Dean got it out of the mailbox when he was checking the mail after work just as he always did after picking up the pups from school. Cas always got home later, so this was one of Dean’s chores. It was addressed from Pontiac High School, which didn’t ring any bells for him but then, Cas didn’t talk about high school much. Dean had met his alpha years after high school, after all, so he didn’t have a frame of reference. He was, however, Castiel Novak’s mate, so he opened the envelope.

_Dear Castiel,_

_We would like to cordially invite you to our 20 th high school reunion to be held this year on May 28th. Please take this opportunity to come catch up with all your peers. We look forward to seeing you and your mate there. _

_Sincerely,_

_Anna Milton_

_Chair, Class of 98 Reunion Committee_

Hot damn! It was an invite for Cas’s high school reunion. Dean loved reunions of this sort and had dragged his alpha to his own ten year high school reunion six years ago. It had been harder to plan then because Claire and Jack had been much smaller then and they’d had to beg Sammy to keep the kids for the weekend while they were gone. Now that Claire was fourteen and Jack ten, they were less trouble to watch so Sam agreed much more readily. Before he knew it, Dean was reaching for the phone to call Sam. All Dean could think about was hearing stories of his beloved alpha in high school. What kind of student had Cas been? A nerd? Surely that but what else? Had he been in clubs? Maybe on the track team? Dean’s head spun with delighted imaginings until Sam’s voice mail picked up and Dean left a message.

At that moment, Claire came into the kitchen. “What’s for dinner?” She demanded, then seeing the abandoned letter on the counter and noting Dean’s excitement, she redirected. “What’s this?”

“An invite to your Dad’s high school reunion.” He said, plucking the piece of paper from his daughter’s fingers.

“Are we going?” Claire asked, leaning her hip against the counter with a faint scowl.

“Your Dad and I are going. You are going to Uncle Sam’s.”

Claire groaned. “He’s going to make us go to the farmer’s market again.”

Dean chuckled. “Probably but since you go voluntarily with your own parents, I doubt it’s a struggle for you. Be good, kiddo. This is a chance for your Dad to catch up with old friends and the like.”

Claire rolled her eyes and flounced from the room and Dean went about making dinner, absolutely certain that his alpha would be pleased that Dean had cleared the way for them to go.

***

Cas was not pleased when he got home. He’d seen the letter on the counter when he’d come in the door and had hastily gone to grab it up and made his way to the trash can with it.

“What are you doing?” Dean said as he caught the motion out of the corner of his eye.

“Cleaning off the counter.” Cas said with his matter of fact aplomb, however, his jaw was tight when he spoke.

“Nuh-uh, mister. We need that invite. It has all the particulars for your class reunion on it.” Dean hastily put down the spatula and crossed the kitchen to take back the letter. It was hard to pry it from Cas’s firm grip.

“We would only need that if we were going.” Cas said, crossing his arms. “Which we aren’t.”

“What?” Dean blinked, the connections not quite coming together for him. “Of course we are going. You went to my high school reunion with me. Now it’s my turn to go with you.”

Cas sighed. “Dean, what will we do with the kids? They won’t want to go.”

Dean grinned. “It’s taken care of. Sammy’s all set to watch them that weekend. I just got off the phone with him ten minutes ago.”

“I’ll be busy that weekend.” Cas said.

“Doing what? It’s after the school year is over. You won’t be grading anymore, Mister Professor, and summer school won’t have started yet.”

“Planning?” Cas shot in, the room taking on a hint of anxiety as his pheromones filled the space.

“Alright, what’s really the problem?” Dean demanded as he took the pan from the stove, turned off the burner and crossed the room to take his alpha into his arms.

“I don’t want to go.” Cas said, his shoulders sagging as he crumbled into Dean’s arms. His normally soothing sent of worn books and ink was spiky with nerves.

Dean made a short, startled noise. “Why not?” He hadn’t considered that Cas wouldn’t want to go. Wasn’t high school supposed to be your glory days?

“I just don’t.” Cas said sulkily as he buried his nose in Dean’s neck and began to draw in the scent of leather, whiskey, and honey that always clung to the omega.

“Cas… “ Dean murmured, trying to pull the alpha back so he could look at him but finding that he couldn’t, Cas was holding on to tight. “It’ll be fun. I want to see your high school and hear all about you before we met.”

“I wasn’t the same alpha in high school, Dean.”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad.” Dean tried to get Cas to look at him again and failed miserably. “You are my alpha and I bet you were hot in high school.”

“Dean…” Cas huffed against Dean’s neck and opened his lips to say something but then cut himself off by attaching said lips to the side of the omega’s neck.

Dean was thoroughly distracted, humming in pleasure as he arched his chin up to give the alpha room to kiss him. Which was, of course, when the Jack burst into the room.

“Gross!” The ten year old burst out with a laugh. “I’m hungry. Is it time for dinner yet?”

Alpha and omega broke apart and went about setting the table, the topic momentarily forgotten.

***

The topic wasn’t going to stay forgotten for long, of course. Because Dean was like a dog with a bone, and the moment Jack and Claire were in bed, he was set to ambush his alpha on the topic. He bided his time in the bed room, folding laundry until Cas came to seek him out. The moment the alpha was in the bed room, Dean closed the door and turned to him. “Alright, let’s talk about this reunion, Alpha.”

Cas’s shoulders slumped. “You really want to go.” It wasn’t a question.

“I do.” Dean nodded as he folded a pair of Cas’s boxer shorts and set them aside on the bed. “I want to know everything about you because, in case you didn’t notice, you are my alpha and I love you.”

If anything, the declaration made Cas shrink in on himself as if he were trying to be smaller. “I don’t see how going to this helps that.”

“Are you kidding?” Dean snorted as he started matching socks. “I’d get to meet your high school friends and hear about whatever misadventures you had.” Dean paused and caught Cas’s expression. “What? No misadventures?” Cas shook his head. “Not even on prom night?” Cas shook his head again. “Baby…” Dean reached out and grabbed Cas’s jaw with his fngers and pulled the alpha into a kiss. “Well, then, I’ll hear about how good you were.”

“Dean… it’s just…” Cas sighed. “There’s nothing to hear.” His shoulders were still slumped.

Dean thought of another possibility. “Were you bullied?”

Cas shook his head. “No, not much.”

“Were you a bully?”

Cas snorted. “Of course not. I wasn’t much of anything in high school. I didn’t fit in but I didn’t really stand out either. I was just… there. I didn’t really come out of my shell until I was in college.” Cas gave another weighty sigh. “If you’d met me in high school, you wouldn’t have noticed me. We would never have been a thing.”

Dean gave a short laugh. “Well, duh. I was a freshman when you were a senior. Too much age difference at that time. Besides, you heard how wild I was in high school. It would have turned you off.”

“Nonsense.” Cas pulled Dean into his arms so their bodies were flush against each other. “I would have been thrilled to have such a wild child interested in me. No one was interested in me, Dean. I didn’t go to prom, you know.”

“Not at all?” Dean asked as he began to kiss over Cas’s jaw.

“No, I didn’t have the guts to ask out the person I wanted to take.” Cas murmured as he leaned into Dean’s body.

“Please Cas. Let’s go. I want to hear about you then. I want to meet your friends.” After another moment of kissing, this time down the alpha’s neck, he spoke again. “I think you’ll find that you weren’t as boring as you remember.”

There was a long moment that held nothing but the silence of the room and the soft sound Dean’s lips made as they traveled up and down Cas’s neck. It was finally broken by Cas’s sigh of defeat. “If it’s that’s important to you, then we will go.”

“Good.” Dean broke free of the alpha in satisfaction, giving a saucy wink. “Now put away your laundry. I’ve got another use for the bed.”

Cas complied without grumbling because he knew that look and was about to get very lucky.

***

The subject of the reunion was dropped for the next several months. Dean made all the arrangements, largely out of fear that Cas would change his mind about going. He wrote it on all of the family calendars to make sure it wasn’t forgotten but otherwise, didn’t draw attention to the event, that it, until he was packing up for it. Cas watched him packing their bag with a frown that was very telling. Once again, the alpha’s scent was going spiky with nerves.

“It’s going to be fine, you’ll see.” Dean promised as he took a break from packing to kiss his alpha. “We are going to have a good time.”

Cas snorted, but accepted the kiss without comment.

***

The trip down was uneventful, even pleasant. They rode in Dean’s car from their home in Lawrence Kansas, all the way to Pontiac Illinois. The left after work on Friday and drove the six and half hours to check into the hotel late that same night.  The next day was free, since the reunion itself didn’t start until seven o clock that evening. Dean insisted that Castiel show him around Pontiac, after all, Cas’s family no longer lived there and so Dean had never visited before. It turned out to not be that bad, driving around his home town with his mate and showing him the places that he used to frequent when he’d been a boy. Dean took it all in with a lopsided smile and kept his arm around the alpha’s shoulders. The closeness was nice, but Cas suspected Dean was doing it to keep him from bolting.

Of course, the easy going afternoon was gone too quickly, and soon enough, they were back in their hotel room dressing for the evening. Cas was wrestling with his tie and trying to keep his own anxiety out of his scent.

Dean stepped up and took the tie from his fingers. “Let me before you crush it.” Cas stood still as his mate tied his necktie.

“Thank you, Dean.” He murmured, his eyes sliding over the form of his wonderful omega. Dean was dressed in khaki pants and a button down shirt, topped with a green tie that brought out the shade of his eyes. He looked nice, even without a blazer. Cas had brought his navy blue suit, which had gotten slightly rumpled in the garment bag. Clucking his tongue, Dean pulled the jacket off of Cas’s shoulders and went to the ironing board.

“Can’t let you go looking like a street person.” His mate grumbled as he ironed the suit coat, then turned a jaundiced eye on Cas. “You’d better give me the pants too.”

It took some time to get him situated, however, as they left the hotel room, Cas had to admit that he looked sharp and nicely dressed, a little like a business man instead of the college professor that he was. He leaned over to kiss Dean’s cheek. “You are too good to me.”

“Don’t I know it.” Dean huffed with a laugh and tugged on Cas’s arm. His eyes were shining and he was smiling, fully looking forward to the evening.

Cas wished that he could feel some of that excitement. All he felt was the sure dread that Dean would be disappointed in him. He’d been boring in high school. There was no way around that. They arrived to the high school to find the parking lot filled and the lawn full of nicely dressed people all milling around. Cas gave them all a once over but saw no one that he knew. Instead of parking it there, Cas led Dean away and into the gym where the reunion party was taking place.

The room was crowded but there wasn’t any music playing just yet, so the space filled with the murmur of voices.

“Castiel!” A voice rang out from a table near the doors as they came in. “You made it!”

Cas turned, his spine stiff to greet the person that called his name and found himself blinking into the cheerful face of a redhead. “Anna. It’s good to see you.” He was surprised to find that he meant it. Anna had always been a friend.

“It’s good to see you too.” She said with a smile. “And this handsome man must be your mate. “

“Yes, this is Dean.” Cas said, finding pride in the introduction because he was quite sure no one had a mate as handsome as his was.

Dean took Anna’s hand with a grin. “It’s nice to meet you.” They shook hands quickly, then Anna went searching through her name tags until she found theirs.

“Here you are.” She peeled the name tag from its back and handed it to Dean. “Castiel and I were good friends. We were in the chess club together. Did he tell you?”

Dean sent him a sideways glance and nodded his head. “Of course he did.” His charming smile was in place as he took Cas’s nametag from her and stuck it to the alpha. “Though he was a little light on details. Care to tell me a story?”

Anna’s smile practically sparkled. “Well, this one time, we were out on a chess tournament and the whole team snuck out after hours to go swim in the pool. Our chaperone caught us and we all went scrambling to get away. I couldn’t climb the fence so Castiel boosted me over. I got away but he was caught and got in trouble. They gave him detention.”

Cas felt his lips twitching as they curled in a smile. He had forgotten about that. “My mother was furious with me over the detention. I was grounded for a month.” He added to her tale and when he looked up, he found Dean smiling at him with a fond smile.

Anna patted his arm. “So noble. Well, I hope to catch up with you all later. I have to hand out these name tags now.”

Cas took Dean’s elbow and steered him away from the table, but soon Dean grabbed his hand and started dragging him towards the punch table. They each collected a cup of some unknown red liquid when another familiar voice called out. “Clarence!”

“Oh no…” Cas murmured to himself, but they were caught.

Meg Masters descended on them, her hands on her hips as she tossed her curly hair over her shoulders. “Look at you after all these years. You only got better with age.”

“Meg.” Castiel nodded before he quickly brought her attention to Dean. “This is my mate, Dean.”

“Nice to meet you.” Dean offered his hand out.

Meg waited a beat before she took it with a slowly spreading smile. “So, you are the person who caught our Clarence’s eye and settled him down. He was remarkably hard to catch back in the day.”

Cas choked on the words. “I think you are exaggerating, Meg. No one wanted me in high school.”

Meg snorted. “I beg to differ. I knew at least a dozen boys and girls that tried to get your attention but you were too dense to notice.” She slipped over to Dean’s side with an unholy twinkle in her eye. “you see, I was Clarence’s best friend and all those poor souls would pour their hearts out to me.” She practically cackled.

Dean turned into Meg, already picking up a conspiratorial grin. “Got any good stories to tell?”

“Do I ever!” Meg exclaimed with a laugh, clapping her hands together. “Did he tell you about homecoming our senior year? We went to the dance together instead of taking dates. I talked our dear Clarence into trying some whiskey before the dance. I’m sure you know he has a crazy tolerance but we didn’t know that back then, and I just kept making him drink trying to get him drunk. He drank the whole damn bottle before we went to the dance.”

Cas groaned because he knew where this story went. “That’s enough, Meg.”  


“Of course not, Clarence.” Meg shot back with a wicked grin. “Well, I finally got him drunk about halfway through the dance, however, it took so much liquor to do it that he got sick and puked behind the gym. He passed out in the back seat of my car and I was so drunk that I went to sleep in the front seat of my car. The police saw the car and picked us up and took us home.”

“My parents were out of town so Gabriel is the one who they talked to.” Cas put in, his cheeks coloring in embarrassment. “He made me his personal slave for months in exchange for the promise that he wouldn’t tell mom and dad.”

Meg tossed her head back and laughed. “Well, I wasn’t so lucky but my parents were used to it by then.”

Dean’s arm slipped around Cas’s shoulders. “I can’t believe you were brought home by the police.”

“It was only once and never happened again.” Cas put in.

“Yeah, he refused to drink after that night.” Meg said with a snort.

“Well, if you had to be Gabriel’s slave, you wouldn’t either.” Cas shot back.

At his side Dean laughed.

Cas was finding it easier to relax. The night continued on in that vein, with Dean meeting Cas’s friends and learning some new stories about him. Inias told Dean about the time that Cas was the one who won them a track meet during their junior year. Samandriel told Dean all about how Cas used to give him a lift home from school every day. There were many others, of course, and they ended up staying until the very end of the event. When they walked into their room at the end of the night, Cas could honestly say he was exhausted but for once, he didn’t feel nervous. He turned to Dean. “Well, how was it?”

Dean beamed at him tiredly. “It was awesome Cas. I loved hearing all about what sort of guy you were in high school. For the record, I think you were wrong.”

“Wrong, about what?” Cas tilted his head to the side as he asked.

“Wrong that I wouldn’t have wanted you in high school. Everything I heard tonight just made me think of how special you are now and how special you’ve always been.”

“Even the story about me puking behind the gym?”

Dean winked. “Even that one. I promise you’re not the only one to puke in such a public place.”

Cas pulled out the knot in his tie before he walked to his mate and took the omega in his arms. “Thank you Dean.”

Dean went easily into the hold, though he looked down into his mate’s eyes. “For what?”

“For making me come here to see how good those years were.” Cas admitted before taking a kiss from his beloved mate. “I’d forgotten because I felt so commonplace and boring. Maybe that wasn’t exactly true.”

“Of course it wasn’t.” Dean nibbled back against Cas’s lips. “It’s easy to overlook how exceptional you are in your own life. Trust me when I say that I can see how brightly you shine.” The omega pressed a firmer kiss against his lips and soon they were parting and tasting each other. Conversation fell by the wayside as the two men stripped each other down and fell into bed together. Much later, as Cas stared at the ceiling with his arms firmly around his mate, he found that he was full of contentment. Leave it to his wonderful mate to show him a side to his life he’d never seen before. That was all part and parcel for the course, however, because if there was anything truly special about his life, it was Dean.


End file.
